China will abolish transplants of organs of executed in the next five years

Beijing, 23 (EFE).-China will abolish within a period of three to five years the practice of transplanting human organs from prisoners executed by the development a national system of organ donation to reduce the current reliance on death row and encourage the donation, the official Xinhua Agency reported today.

The source quoted Huang Jiefu, Vice Chinese Minister of public health, who explained yesterday at a Conference in the city of Hangzhou (East) to achieve the objective of abolishing already pilot projects carried out in 16 provinces.

“the commitment to abolish the donations of organs of convicted prisoners is a determination of the Government,” said Huang.

According to health officials, due to insufficient donations of bodies, most of the transplanted in China come from executed prisoners, although they said, only with your consent.

The Ministry of health figures show that nearly 1.5 million people in China need organ transplants, but only carried out 10,000 annually.

According Xinhua, caution in recent years in the implementation of the death penalty led to the decline in transplants of organs of executed.

To the Deputy Minister, “these changes represent challenges to the traditional way that China resolved the need for organ transplants”.

Huang noted that rates of infection by fungi and bacteria by the bodies of convicted prisoners are very high, which reduces the survival of the transplanted in China compared to other countries.

To improve the rules on organ transplants, in 2007, the Council of State (Executive) issued the first provisions prohibiting organizations and individuals trading in any way with human organs.

An amendment to the criminal law of China, adopted by the National Popular Assembly (ANP) in 2011, first established the crime of commercial transactions of bodies.

With the new regulation, criminals sentenced for “extraction or enforced organ donation” may face charges of homicide and for organizing illegal sale be imprisoned up for 5 years and a fine, but in more severe cases the sentences will be higher. EFE